While many people have bad things to say about working with or for Steve Harvey, his former co-star Terri J. Vaughn wants people to know she is not included in the lot.
The comedian played the former principal on his hit sitcom, “The Steve Harvey Show,” but Vaughn says the only conflict that they ever had was about how she dressed for the show.
To her, any issue that they had wasn’t that bad.
The actress made an appearance on Pierre Edwards’ “Pierre Live” podcast, reflecting on her experience portraying the character. She played Lovita Alizay Jenkins-Robinson, the secretary at the high school featured in the series from 1997 to 2002. From season 2 until season 6, viewers watched Lovita date and later marry Cedric The Entertainer’s character, Cedric Robinson.
Edwards asked her to weigh in on all of the controversy regarding her former boss and Cedric, noting that he had “heard recently” that she had issues with Harvey on set.
“Now somebody told me that and I’ve never said that,” Vaughn quickly clarified, adding a beat later, “He’s never done anything. Somebody said I didn’t like the way Steve talked to me on the set. I’ve never had a bad experience with Steve.”
I Love me some Terri J Vaughn
— Mr. X (@AKidNamedX) August 3, 2023
Lovita and Cedric were the best part of the Steve Harvey show https://t.co/ARNLLIfeOh pic.twitter.com/L0MV85jePB
She then explained that the only thing that she and Steve used to “get into it about,” was how she and some of the young ladies came to work to rehearse.
“We would come to work in tennis shoes, sweats,” she said. “He’s like ‘How come y’all don’t come to work with a nice dress or heels or something?’”
Vaughn said she told him that no one felt like “coming to rehearse” and be on their feet for eight hours. Additionally, she humorously recounted a conversation with Harvey regarding his expectations for women to always be impeccably groomed, despite his adherence to old-fashioned values, jesting that she could never be his “woman” due to these demands
“But that’s just Steve,” she said.
Vaughn’s defense of Harvey comes after two other comedians recently slammed him in the media.
White comedian Gary Owen, who often runs on the Black comic circuit, talked about working for Harvey on his daytime talk show for three seasons.
“I just did ‘Hip Hop Squares,’ the show DeRay [Davis] used to host, and I filmed three episodes in one day on ‘Hip Hop Squares’ and made four times the money I made doing two weeks of ‘The Steve Harvey Show,’” the “Ride Along” actor said.
Gary Owen discusses the payment issues he faced while working with Steve Harvey and says the money he made from 'Hip Hop Squares' was four times higher than what he received while working with Steve Harvey.
— The Art Of Dialogue (@ArtOfDialogue_) January 8, 2024
(🎥 @garyowencomedy ) pic.twitter.com/w8YdEd4qAs
He added, “It was only two people on the show every week, it was me and Steve. I just pretty much said, ‘Give it up for Steve Harvey,’ and I announced the guests and go back to my dressing room.”
Owen gathered the courage to voice his opinions after Katt Williams made an appearance on “Club Shay Shay,” where he candidly shared his behind-the-scenes perspectives on Harvey, Cedric, Kevin Hart, Rickey Smiley and others.
The “Pimpin Pimpin” comedian expressed that some of these comedians were not funny and went as far as accusing some of stealing jokes from him and other comedians he knew.
